Introduction
Lodzkie Region as an Applicant Organizations aims to focus its activities on the Action 1 of the Program: Active citizens for Europe, Town Twinning. European Regions for Social Inclusion project is therefore created to promote mutual understanding, a sense of ownership of the European Union as well as to foster a debate on EU values and active citizenship. The targets of the project are planned to be achieved through strong cooperation with wide European network of public and private bodies. The project aims to create interregional and multilevel network between public authorities on local and regional level as well as between public bodies and CSOs. The goals of the project are facing local and regional strategies with the focus on main areas of improvement. They adjust to Europe 2020 Strategy, Charter of Fundamental Rights, EU Citizens 2013 report, guidelines of the European Year 2013. It contributes to the implementation of those strategies on the local level. Thanks to strong cooperation between old and new EU countries, as well as Montenegro, the partnership will provide scale effect and in the long distance will lead to its main aims:
- raising awareness about EU issues and deepen the trust in EU project;
- ensuring that citizens feel informed about of EU and its influence on their life on the local level;
- developing European identity, foster mutual understanding;
- involving groups at risk of social exclusion, recognizing those in cooperation with CSOs and providing an insight in the effectiveness of authorities bottom-up initiatives.
Projects activities:
Due to the wide variety of target groups the Project aims to diverse the activities which include inter alia:
- conferences and seminars;
- experts panels;
- citizens dialogue;
- workshops;
- art competition;
- study visits.
Partnership
Lodzkie Region, relying on its solid partnership relations as well as those newly acquired, created a network of 23 partners engaged in the European Regions for Social Inclusion project. The network consists of mainly public authorities, but also CSOs. Each partner plays an important role in the project and thanks to strong cooperation and tasks division each elements complement each other. The Partners are experienced players in the field concerning inter alia: Social Cohesion, Inclusive Economy, Citizenship and Participatory policy making. The Project will benefit also from the cooperation with technologies and communications tools providers like: European Projects Association (EPA) - expert in the field of European projects support system, manager of Europa News and My Europa community platform.
